We also have 30 gateway workstations and two servers. Over the last year
only had one workstation with an intermitent shutdown(rebooted from a bug
check). Working with tech support I supplied a memory location from the
event log and they narrowed the problem down to a modem or sound card. We
pulled the sound card and the problem stopped. We have had no other
problems.
Mark Dupuis
IS Manager
Ranor, Inc.
dupuism@...
-----Original Message-----
From: Thad Jacobs [mailto:
tjacobs@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 1:51 PM
To: '
vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] [OT] Workstations (was SERVERS....)
We have about 30 gateways running now. It takes 1 hour and 11 minutes to
reformat, install the OS from scratch and install office and autocad.
We had one of the Western Digital drives in a gateway workstation go bad.
When I came on board here, and heard that we were using gateways, I cringed
as well. However, the amount of hours we spend troubleshooting hardware
issues has probably been reduced to 10% of what it was when we were still
using compaq workstations. The gateways work just fine, and the only
problem we have is the intermittent 98 shutdown bug. As far as upgrading,
I've installed SCSI cards, Scanners, RAM, and video cards on the Gateways
without a hitch.
With the Compaqs, upgrading was much, much more difficult, and in some cases
impossible, Especially with their proprietary IRQ interface and the mandate
that you use a hard disk partition for BIOS.
A little story about HP and Compaq:
I had a HP SCSI CDRW I was trying to get to work on a Compaq deskpro AP400
workstation. Wasn't being recognized by the SCSI controller. I called up
HP tech support, and after going through the usual driver reinstallation and
troubleshooting, the HP TECH told me to change the IRQ setting of the SCSI
controller on the COMPAQ, So I did. I figured I could just change it back if
it didn't work. I was wrong.
I booted up my computer, and THE HARD DISK COULD NOT BE LOCATED, and got a
bunch of other beeps and such. Changing the IRQ on the SCSI controller made
the C:, which was connected to the SCSI controller, inoperable. I COULDN'T
GO INTO BIOS SETUP AND FIX IT BECAUSE THE BIOS SETUP PROGRAM IS STORED ON
THE SCSI HARD DISK. In order to get my computer back in original working
condition, I had to go to Compaq's site from another workstation, download
the SoftPaq for BIOS setup, extract it to three diskettes, boot up the
diskette, wait for the diskette to load entirely into memory, load another
diskette, and then load a third diskette to change the BIOS parameters.
Time spent: 10 hours, Result: Mission Aborted.
I then ordered a SCSI card from CDW for a one of the cheapo GATEWAY
workstations, stuck it in the PCI slot, installed the drivers, hooked up the
CDRW, installed its software. Burned test CD.
Time Spent: 45 Minutes, Result: SUCCESS.
I'm sorry, but I can't see HP + Compaq = anything worth buying. Dell may be
better than gateway in some respects, but you'll never convince me that
Gateway is worse than HP or Compaq as far as workstations go.
Still though, our compaq servers are running without a hitch.
($.02)
Thaddeus
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Siebers [mailto:
paul.siebers@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 12:13 PM
To: '
vantage@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Vantage] [OT] servers --NOW Dell vs. HP
In my eyes the troubles with Gateway are plain old cutting corners and using
cheap parts (like HD's) where you really shouldn't. Also their tech support
is hard to get a hold of without taking out the old credit card.
If you don't want to be stuck playing tech support for family and friends
then my best advice is lie about what you do for a living. My parents still
think I joined the Foreign Legion a decade ago. The same holds true if you
are a MD, car mechanic or lawyer.
HTH,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Cox [mailto:
wmc@...]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 12:28
To:
vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] [OT] servers --NOW Dell vs. HP
At 12:02 PM 10/30/2001, you wrote:
>so Gateway was still cranking out quality stuff at that time.
That's two strikes against Gateway now. What's the trouble with their
stuff?
My techo-phobe father is in the market for his first home PC, and Gateway
was one I was considering. I'd like to buy a box-o-parts and build him
something, but I don't wanna be stuck playing tech support.
-Wayne
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